Hi everybody
I just want throw in a few thoughts on the subject.
My experience tells me that in order to make a shoot with pro models feasible it will be a good idea to note the following:
1. Do extensive research of what buyers want
2. Be very well prepared in terms of lighting, location, angles etc. before the day of shooting. Don't ever blame the location. You are in control. You are responsible for the outcome.
3. Be sure to brief your stylist (and yourself
well in advance. You need to know exactly what props and styling you want. This requires expert shootplanning because you cannot have either a proplist nor a shotlist if you haven't planned it beforehand.
4. Remember that "a prop is a shot". If you have a newspaper, a glass of orange, a styrofoam cup, a book etc. you have at least 3-5 shots per prop. In this way you can easily produce more than 200 images in one day. And with the subject of the thread in mind we really have to ask ourselves "what the use of a "bad" model with 1000 props. If the face doesn't sell you are wasting your time in both pre-production, during shooting and what to speak of postproduction.
5. Stagger you models in continually overlapping intervals. Don't have them all show up simultaneously. For instance you have one model come early. You style and shoot that person for 1 hour. Then comes the next model and you do a "couple shoot" for one hour. Another one arrives and you have a small group to shoot for an hour. 2 more arrive and you have a large group for one hour. 3 leave and you have another couple to shoot for an hour. And finally you keep 1 for shooting on isolated white or whatever. Like that you can have multiple themes in one day, and if well propped you have almost unlimited variety. I often find that I lack time and not ideas on my shoots. I could go on and on and on, which I often do do. Eventually you collapse though ... but hey we're only human
6. Be well rested and in a good mood on the day of shooting and ALWAYS tell the models and people around you that it is going great. If you don't you may ruin the mood and you will not get a lot of spontaneity out of your staff or models. So always keep a positive attitude.
7. Move on to another angle or another lighting if something doesn't work for you. Remember that you CAN'T FORCE AN IMAGE. If its not there, it's not there. Move on. Try something different. Be on the move. On the other hand if the lighting and angle is perfect, milk it. Do a lot of different themes right then and there. If it works why fix it
I hope that was helpful to someone
Kind regards,
laflor
Show Posts
